RESURRECTION OF A SKYLARK
On hearing Vaughan Williams ‘The Lark Ascending’

What if the skylark were reborn,
fledged from within the breast
of a Stradivari violin, attuned to the
heartbeat of wild-flower meadows?

What if the violinist recaptured
that simple bliss in the patchwork of
vetch, clover, dock and ox-eye daisy,
breathing the petrichor of a post-rain evening?

What if the orchestra returned,
their musica dolce releasing fragile
wings in tentative flight, surfing the
rising currents, soaring skywards?

Trilling, trembling, trailing the
cloud-skein of a ripening summer,
honeyed vibrato trickling earthwards
in ritardando, a gentle enchantment.

If so, then he might live again, fly again,
my lover with wistful green eyes and
hair like spilt sunshine. His soul might
soar where the lark first sang affetuoso.

Two hearts might beat in unison again and the
ending become the beginning, grief to joy.
Could we not lie together in that same meadow,
Our love intact, untouchable? Da capo al fine.

-Margaret Royall

-Margaret Royall

Song of the Living Dead

The living
Bury ourselves in shame
Of pipeline trenches dug.

The living are ripped
Jaggedly, lengthwise; symmetry undone
By fracking.

The salt of the living
Bleeds, nuclear waste
Leaking into ocean waters.

The living mourn the loss
Of nature’s bountiful song,
Supplanted by the drone strikes of the dead.
~

“Song of the Living Dead” was published by The BeZine, and is included in Samantha’s chapbook Keeping Afloat (JC STUDIO Press, Oct. 2021). Samantha Terrell is an internationally published American poet whose writing has received five-star reviews. In 2021, she earned First Honorable Mention in the “Anita McAndrews Poets for Human Rights Awards” organized by Poets Without Borders. Terrell resides in upstate New York with her husband and their two children.

-Samantha Terrell

-Neal Zetter

TRAVEL IN THE LAPS OF NATURE:

Stop staring at the screens of
your mobile phones and laptops
for your eyes have strained enough
and shall fall out like a bulb from a socket
if their burning goes beyond the current temperature.
Stop confining yourselves to the rushes and noises of
the shopping malls, clubhouses, discotheques, headphones, and your daily city traffic with honking horns
for your eardrums have vibrated enough to the blows of the cacophonies
and shall rupture like a rock burst in a high-stress mine
if their exposure goes beyond the current noise level.
So, carry your phones in your handbag and your laptop in your laptop bag like emergency toolkits
and step into the lap of nature with your traveling bag
and return afresh with your relaxed eyes, ears, and mind
to switch back to your monotony
and keep on swinging like a pendulum
from your monotony to your travel in the lap of nature.

-©Spriha Kant

TRAVESTY

You trample on our lush green fields
and want to crack the crust of this earth
You taunt us with all your wealth
while sitting at the table of plenty
You smirch the clouds so white and pure
and children choke and gasp for air
You exploit this world
in a rush for oil
and for rich man’s dreams
you’d sacrifice this world

Children’s futures
are put in jeopardy
and nature is suffering
a torrid cruel blow
as trees are cut down
and animal’s habitats
are taken from them,
leaving no place for them to roam

Time is quickly passing by
as this earth shudders
devastation, far and wide
but people still have a voice
and silence is no option
we need to speak
before it’s too late
take to the streets
tell those responsible for this violation
life is precious
to stop this senseless annihilation

-Francis H Powell

Outside.

By the last cut of wild
92% of the picture is trespass.
A picture without life.
Glass squares slide aside
tessellated floor tiles.
Behind gloss white doors
Are square boxes of foods.
Mellow sunlight is rejected by
2ms squared of astroturf,
For recreation and yoga.

Natural regrets.

Milankovitch cycles pedal back
The times, the man’s returning
Precipitation, crimes,
Lamented oscillations
The times, the widening gyre
Until at last, unseen
The mechanism
Reflected spectrum’s green.

Returning winds.

Reed’s caress, like violin’s bows that play on my regrets.
Ice cold, the bitter missed kisses of summer’s last throws,
Rouge my cheeks, water my eyes.

-Kevin Sealby

-Jane Dougherty

Water Music

Majestic waterway
To trumpet fanfares and jubilant strings
King George rides the rising evening tide upstream
His royal barge tugging Handel’s orchestra in tow
To serenade his subjects flocking the bank of the river below
To bathe in the stately adagio,
And glimpse his Highness with his mistresses
To jig and hornpipe dancing

Beneath the surface London’s sewage streams
Silently choking the Thames aquatic life

On the surface I too showed the world serene supremacy
A fit and trim picture of health
While my bloodstream silently screamed
Cholesterol; a timely test revealing arteries furred up
With saturated fat threatening to
Clot and rot me from within

Listen to the rivers sweetly sing
Lullabies on the Wye, the Ouse and Lee
Where anglers wish for tranquillity
Escaping the chase for infinite growth
Ever higher industrial yields
Running off the fields
Agrochemicals poisoning their fish;
Our rivers like my blood vessels clogged
By untreated sewage overflows
As fatbergs block sewers, dulling their echoes;
On the ocean’s surface we are deaf to the cries
Below as her plastic-entangled sea-life
Dies

Statin island
No misplacement nor misspelling here
But what this ailing land needs become
If its waterways are not to perish
In unmusical deep-vein agony
Of ecocidal cholesterol poisoning.

-Peter Gaskell

Bios and Links

-Margaret  Royall

is the author of five books of poetry and a memoir in prose and verse. She has appeared widely in print, in webzines and  poetry anthologies and has won or been short-listed in several competitions. Her second collection ‘Where Flora Sings’, published by Hedgehog Press Nov 2020, was nominated for the Laurel Prize in 2021. Her latest collection, ‘Immersed in Blue’ was published in January 2022 by Impspired Press. She leads a women’s poetry group in Nottinghamshire and takes part in open mic sessions online and in person. Currently she is working on a third poetry collection.

Website: https://margaretroyall.com/ Twitter:@RoyallMargaret

-Francis H. Powell

Born in 1961, in Reading, England Francis H Powell attended Art Schools, receiving a degree in painting and an MA in printmaking. In 1995, Francis H Powell moved to Austria, teaching English as a foreign language while pursuing his varied artistic interests adding music and writing. He currently lives in Brittany, France writing both prose and poetry. Francis H Powell has published short stories in the magazine, “Rat Mort” and other works on the internet site “Multi-dimensions.” His two published books are Flight of Destiny and Adventures of Death, Reincarnation and Annihilation. He has also compiled a book of short stories, poems and illustrations, featuring other writers and poets. The book is called “Together Behind Four Walls” and is a book of lockdown stories and poems. The books has raised money for Marie Curie nurses. He has had poems published in anthologies, for both adults and children. He has done poetry reading for Paris Lit up as well as other events. 

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthologies “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” and “A Whisper Of Your Love” in the fourth and fifth series of the books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “Wombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Kevin Sealby.
Musician and Poet, often writing around Environmental issues, and other liberal ideals.
Trying to merge music into poetry and vice versa.

-Peter Gaskell

writes fiction, reviews, poetry and plays.

He has had poems published in Roath Writers 2020 anthology, Places of Poetry where he was one of 200 poets selected from nearly 8000, and the Atlanta Review edition featuring poets from Wales, Atlanta-Review-Spring-2020-04.30.20.pdf (atlantareview.com, search ‘Gaskell’) as well as several haiku in Love The Words Anthology for Dylan Day 2021 (discoverdylanthomas.com)